The best albums of 2008
Only By The Night is one of the best albums of the year.
Also In The News
| England and India played out a draw in the second Test match in Mohali after the tourists reached the close of play on 64-1, chasing a victory target of 403. |  |
Wednesday, 24, Dec 2008 10:02 inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley gives his verdict on the ten best albums of the year.
In no particular order...
The Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound
Without Brian Fallon's lyrics, the New Jersey's band's punk-rock would site comfortably alongside their peers, but thanks to Fallon's nostalgic tales of working class dreams, tattoos, sneakers and the oncoming rush of responsibility, their third album seems like the prodigious offspring of an unholy union between the Boss and the Clash. Though they might slow down a bit after knocking out three albums in less than two years, these four have only just started their bid to win your heart.
| |
Kings of Leon: Only By The Night
Take away cocaine and supermodels, add home comforts and stable relationships and what do you get? The most accomplished album of the Followills' breakneck career. It's a dazzling mix of stadium scope, gorgeous painkiller-aided vocals from Caleb and in lyrics that fuse longing, lewd behaviour (is Sex on Fire really about an STD?) and loneliness, the clearest sign that Kings of Leon are ready to take the mantle of the biggest band in the world. They're certainly the best right now.
|
The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
Mysteriously forgotten in many of the end-of year lists (what happened NME?), Craig Finn and co hit their stride with majestic ease on their fourth album in five years, a rollicking, staggeringly-polished work from a band nearing their 40s. The importance of the Boss for Finn and friends is still clear, especially on the catchy, horn-driven lead single Sequestered in Memphis and fist-pumping effort Yeah Sapphire, but this is an ambitious, vivid, darker and deeply-involving album. Stay Positive? How could one not?
|
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
The Wall of Sound shimmering around James Allan's impassioned vocals is sufficient to break your heart and raise your spirits at the same time, instantly making this one of the most affecting albums of the year. But when you recognise the fact that stories of teenage stabbings, serial infidelity and a life ruined by a broken family have been shrouded in pitch-perfect indie pop, it also becomes one of the most relevant and not since Oasis has a band created such a feeling of unity among their crowds.
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Preppy Upper West Side kids mix Paul Simon harmonies, chamber pop, African rhythms, strings from a Wes Anderson film and grammatical queries. Result? One of the most exuberant, joyous albums of the year. And with arrangements this complex on this startling, intelligent debut, who knows what influences Ezra Koenig will draw on for their next effort. The silly 'Upper West Side Soweto' label aside, this is some of the most tuneful, heartwarming since Julian Casablancas and co were actually bothered about making albums.
Lupe Fiasco: The Cool
The second instalment of a planned trilogy, the thinking man's rapper provides an album that lives up to its sub-zero name, both in ethos and execution. From the moment Lupe's sister urges America to address its guilt over gentrification and Katrina, to the chart-bothering gloss of Superstar to his refusal to cow-tow to the idiocy of much of hip-hop on the polemic of Dumb It Down, this is proof that the best hip-hop album of 2008 didn't come from Lil Wayne. Forget "lick-lick-licking" on a Lollipop - yawn - here's a teetotal, skateboard-loving Muslim to remind us that hip-hop wasn't always about bitches and bling.
Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreak
An album that dispenses with everything that's made the world fall for the most arrogant man in music, 808s and Heartbreak proves that sometimes necessity really is the mother of invention. Especially when said is an excuse to occupy your mind with something other than a broken relationship and the passing of your mother. Kanye might be hurting on the inside - fairly publicly on several tracks, in fact - but that pain's helped him create his own Kid A, a brave, bold, maddening and jawdropping work that will divide and conquer even though it's like nothing he's done before.
Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
An album you could imagine discovering while scouring through your Dad's old LPs for that vinyl copy of Bookends, this is the most bewitching release of the year. Sub Pop's latest signing have merged the Shins, the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to produce an album that seems to have come from another age. Haunting harmonies, gentle lolloping melodies and lyrical imagery that leaves you floating away into an autumnal forest or a slowly trickling stream, with only your beard and chequered shirt for company.
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
Heart broken by a girlfriend? Problem solved. Emigrate to a Wisconsin wood cabin with a guitar, a laptop and a lilting falsetto and a few months later you've got yourself a plaintive, remarkably sad album that will charm you for months, maybe years on end. Well, it worked for Justin Vernon. In a music world when some are explicitly seeking stadiums or experimenting dangerously with the sound that's served them so well, Bon Iver's devastatingly simple album is living proof of Occam's Razor. Stark, sparse, beautiful songs that do what all great music should and leave you with an aching chest.
|
Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid
The richly-deserved recipients of the Mercury prize, Elbow have plugged away for nigh-on 20 years with critical acclaim never really translating into mainstream success. Until this year, when the sad death of their friend Bryan Glancy inspired Guy Garvey and friends to make a superbly-rendered, hugely affecting and undeniably heartfelt piece of work. From the defiant, sun-worshipping refrain of One Day Like This to the swagger of Grounds for Divorce, drenched in scotch and Mancunian rain, it's a brilliantly conceived, all-encompassing album and an essential purchase.
Lewis Bazley
Near misses
TV On The Radio: Dear Science
Why?: Alopecia
MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
Adele: 19
Sigur Ros: Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalust